NASA, Roscosmos Complete Seat Swap on Flights to ISS
HOUSTON (NASA PR) — To ensure continued safe operations of the International Space Station (station), protect the lives of astronauts, and ensure continuous U.S. presence in space, NASA will resume integrated crews on U.S. crew spacecraft and the Russian Soyuz with the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos.
Flying integrated crews ensures there are appropriately trained crew members on board the station for essential maintenance and spacewalks. It also protects against contingencies such as a problem with any crew spacecraft, serious crew medical issues, or an emergency aboard the station that requires a crew and the vehicle they are assigned to return to Earth sooner than planned.
Integrated crews have been the norm throughout the International Space Station Program in order to maintain safe operation of the space station. Five space agencies (the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, NASA, and Roscosmos) operate the station, with each space agency responsible for managing and controlling the hardware it provides. The station was designed to be interdependent and relies on contributions from each space agency to function. No one agency has the capability to function independent of the others. The no-exchange-of-funds arrangement includes transportation to and from the International Space Station and comprehensive mission support, including all necessary training and preparation for launch, flight operations, landing and crew rescue services. The first missions to include integrated crews under this agreement will be in September 2022.
With the agreement in place, NASA has assigned astronaut Frank Rubio to an upcoming mission as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 68 crew, and Loral O’Hara as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 69 crew. Rubio, along with cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin of Roscosmos, is scheduled to launch Wednesday, Sept. 21, on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. O’Hara, along with cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, is scheduled to launch spring 2023 on the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft.
Roscosmos has assigned cosmonaut Anna Kikina as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 67/68 crew, and cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 68/69 crew. Kikina, along with NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, is targeted to launch on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 in September from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Fedyayev, along with NASA astronauts Steve Bowen and Woody Hoburg are targeted to launch on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 in spring 2023.
16 responses to “NASA, Roscosmos Complete Seat Swap on Flights to ISS”
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this was wrong AND Joe never should have gone to Saudi land. I understand why he is doing both…but we should stand tall against evil
Agreed, Saudi Arabia has been supporting Russia by keeping production at 75% of pre-pandemic levels and not supporting the West at the UN. There should be consequences for that behavior.
it was a mistake until he could force them to get back up to full production then he should not have gone
Saudi Arabia exists because of the U.S. military. Without them it would have been part of Iran years ago. They just need to be reminded of that basic fact.
Alternatively, just turn the good folks in West Texas loose where thanks to fracking the oil resources available to recover are now greater that all of the Middle East nations.
Actually, Saudi probably owes at least as much to the Israelis these days as to the U.S.
Good luck with either of those wish-list items, especially the last one.
there is no “turning the good folks in West Texas loose” NOTHING is holding them back other than cost.
as for the Saudi’s I agree. if the US left Iran would own the place in minutes. they are going to anyway we should let them
And regulatory uncertainty given this Administration’s commitment to “green” energy.
which has nothing to do with how much oil is flowing. Biden’s commitment to green energy has just started the train, it will take a decade or two for it to start showing impact on oil
So ending new fracking leases on federal land is having no effect on oil production? Get a clue.
none at all. these are all future efforts and no where near production. there are still rigs that are shut down. get a clue
I wouldn’t say the Biden-era regulation is “uncertain” so much as uniformly hostile to petroleum production.
Joe Biden is holding them back.
Root Vegetable Joe isn’t “standing tall against evil” much of anywhere these days – maybe, at best, standing a bit hunched over against evil in Ukraine. But everywhere else, no. Going to Saudi Arabia is not a particularly good look, but it’s better than giving the store away to China and going cap-in-hand to Iran and Venezuela after knee-capping both the Canadian and U.S. petroleum industries.
as I said I know why he went. but. my main gripe with Joe is that he acts as if 30 percent of the people in this country lead by absolute evil…at some point will turn sane. they wont. history is leaving them in the dust they know that
I would far rather we bought oil from Venny land or Iran. they are real nations
I don’t think the woke constitute anywhere near 30%. History, in any case, will be leaving a lot of people in the dust, the woke most of all. Joe Biden will just be one of them.
Venezuela used to be a real country. Now, like Somalia, it’s just borders on a map.
This seat-swap thing never made any sense and still doesn’t. The one quasi-bright spot is that the deal took so long to work out that the total number of seats actually swapped will probably not exceed 10 between now and when the Russians will likely leave ISS in 2024.